Carolina Home

by Virginia Kantra

  Only to stop dead, staring at their mother’s robe tossed over a chair. Matt winced. Everything was the way Tess must have left it on Tuesday morning, her robe on the chair, her book by the bed, her towel on a bar by the open bathroom door.

  Matt set his sister’s suitcase carefully on the bed. “Sorry. I didn’t have time to clean in here.”

  “It’s okay.” Meg’s lips quirked. “That’s what I’m here for.”

  He returned her smile. He knew damn well that when Meg left Dare Island she’d been determined never to clean another toilet, to fold another towel, again. But here she was. Back to back to back. Gratitude made him say, “I can give you a hand for the rest of the day. Josh, too, when he gets home.”

  “Good. If we’re full up, we’re going to need all the help we can get.” Meg crossed to her bag and unzipped it. “What about tomorrow?”

  Matt rubbed his jaw. “Both boats are booked. Jimmy Peele’s captaining the old Sea Lady for me, but with Dad at the hospital I’ll need Josh to come along as mate.”

  Meg pulled a pair of sneakers from her bag and turned to look at him. “So I’m on my own?”

  “The Kellers are staying two nights. You won’t have to change their sheets,” Matt said, feeling guilty. “Just make the beds and, you know, straighten up a little.”

  “I know what to do,” she said, tying her shoes. “God knows I did it often enough growing up.”

  She moved into the kitchen at New York speed, muttering and opening cupboards. Matt followed in her wake.

  “Okay, somebody has to go shopping,” she said, surveying the inside of the fridge. “I don’t have time to bake cookies before check-in, and we’ve got nothing in the house for breakfast.”

  “Give me a list,” Matt said.

  “Great. Thanks.” She grabbed the pad and pencil by the phone and started writing. “You know, Matt, we need to start thinking about the long term. Mom’s car was totaled. I rented something for Dad so he could get to and from the hospital, but…”

  How could she write a list and talk to him at the same time?

  “Randy Scott is looking to sell his Nissan Altima. I told him I was interested.”

  Meg raised her head. “Will Mom’s insurance pay for that?”

  “Doesn’t matter. Dad can drive it for now, and if he decides he wants something else for Mom, it will be a good car for Josh.”

  It wasn’t a Mercedes. Or the Jeep that Josh had been talking about. But the sedan was safe and reliable, without too many miles on it. Josh could deal.

  “Okay.” Meg nodded slowly. “That takes care of transportation. That still leaves us shorthanded at the inn. I need to go back to work as soon as Mom’s out of intensive care. We’ll have to hire somebody.”

  Matt set his jaw. “We can’t take on somebody full-time at the end of the season. Mom and Dad can’t afford it.”

  “News flash, big brother. Mom and Dad aren’t here. It’ll be weeks before Mom can come home. And Dad won’t leave her.”

  He felt the conversation getting deeper, the levels of complication piling up, until he was in over his head.

  Keep it simple, he thought.

  “We’ll make it work,” he said.

  “How?”

  “We’ll figure it out. I can move some charters, maybe get part-time help. Lots of captains just sitting at the docks this time of year. Right now we just have to get through the weekend.”

  “What about Taylor?”

  His shoulders tightened. It had been three days since his conversation with Allison, three days in which Taylor had slept with the dog and played video games with Josh, eaten her vegetables under protest and done her homework without complaint. Three days in which Matt had barely found time to take a piss, let alone schedule a heart-to-heart with his ten-year-old niece. “What about her?”

  “I’ve never met her. How is she going to react to having another stranger take care of her?”

  The tension in Matt’s neck and shoulders ratcheted up a notch. “She’ll be fine. She’s a good kid. She won’t give you any trouble.”

  “Matt.” Meg put her hands on her hips, looking so much like their mother it was creepy. “Her mother just died. Her father, who she barely knows, is getting shot at in fricking Afghanistan. She’s living with people she just met, and her grandmother is in intensive care. If she doesn’t give me any trouble, then something is seriously wrong with her.”

  He didn’t want to hear it. But Meg was right.

  It doesn’t help to ignore her wounds, Allison had said the other night. Taylor needs to know she doesn’t have to deal with whatever’s bothering her alone.

  “I’ll talk to her,” he said.

  Meg’s brows rose. “You?”

  “Who else? Unless you’re volunteering.”

  Meg laughed. “God, no.”

  Allison would have said yes, he thought. She said yes to everything. He didn’t know how they would have made it through the past three days without her. But she wasn’t family. She had her own life, her own work, her own obligations to attend to. He couldn’t keep laying his shit on her, too.

  No, this one was on him.

  “Oh, crap,” Meg said, looking out the window. “They’re here already.”

  Matt frowned. “The Kellers?” David and Sharon Keller had a six-hour drive from Lynchburg, Virginia. He was sure they’d asked for a late check-in.

  “One of the daughters, I think. Or a granddaughter. Looks like Baylor Barbie traded in her pink convertible for a Mercedes.”

  The back of Matt’s neck prickled. Mercedes? That was…

  The kitchen door opened and Allison stood in a flood of sunshine, looking young and fresh and impossibly beautiful, her arms full of flowers and a wide grin on her face.

  Matt’s heart lifted at the sight of her, the weight dropping from his shoulders, the tension easing in his neck. Whether he admitted it or not, whether he wanted it or not, she made things better simply by being there.

  Her gaze sought his across the kitchen. “Sorry we’re late,” she said cheerfully. “I stopped by the grocery store on the way home. I figured you’d need a few things.”

  Meg reacted like a cat hit by a bucket of water, with swift, stiff, disdainful suspicion. “Who are you?”

  ALLISON BLINKED AT the short, chic, semihostile woman glaring at her from beside the kitchen counter.

  Matt’s sister. She recognized the blue eyes, cropped hair, strong jaw of the smiling Harvard grad in the picture upstairs.

  She wasn’t smiling now.

  Well, this was a stressful time for her, Allison thought fairly. For her whole family. No wonder Meg was feeling protective. Circle the wagons.

  Allison pasted on her most disarming parent-teacher smile and introduced herself. “Allison Carter. I’m…” She hesitated, searching for a nice, neutral label that wouldn’t threaten Matt’s sister.

  Matt’s friend? Girlfriend?

  “Josh’s teacher,” Matt said. “She’s been helping us out since the accident.”

  Well, that was certainly neutral, Allison thought, swallowing hurt.

  “And she brought you flowers,” Meg drawled. “How sweet.”

  Allison stuck out her chin. “These are for the Kellers. Matt mentioned this weekend is their fiftieth wedding anniversary. I thought the bouquet would be a nice touch for their room.”

  “Pretty,” Matt approved.

  “She didn’t throw them at the dog this time, either,” Josh joked as he carried in the bag of groceries from the car. “Hey, Aunt Meg.”

  “Josh!” Meg’s hostility melted into smiles as she hugged her nephew. “God, you’re so tall. Good-looking, too.”

  Taylor followed Josh into the kitchen, carefully balancing a pink bakery box from Jane’s Sweet Tea House. “We bought cupcakes. Allison let me pick them out.”

  Allison glanced from Matt to Meg. She’d only offered to drive the kids from school so Matt could be home when his sister arrived. Maybe she should have asked, she should h
ave waited, instead of blundering blindly in with what she thought was needed. “I thought…since there wasn’t time to bake cookies…”

  “What a good idea,” Meg said coolly. Her smile warmed when she looked at Taylor. “I’m your Aunt Meg. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

  “Good job,” Matt said quietly as his sister huddled with Taylor over the box.

  Allison expelled her breath. “Thanks.”

  “Sorry about Meg. She’s used to being the Queen Bee in the family.”

  Family.

  Every pinch Allison had felt, the hurt, the irritation, the injured pride, dissolved into gooey warmth.

  “You’re her brother. This is your family business. I totally understand her feeling territorial.”

  “That’s no excuse for taking it out on you. I’ll talk to her.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Matt. I can take care of myself.”

  He drew back slightly. “Sure.”

  What had put that faint distance in his eyes, that reserve in his voice?

  “I mean, you have enough people to take care of,” she said.

  “Right.”

  She watched Taylor with Meg, arranging cupcakes on a plate. Saw Josh, swigging milk in front of the open refrigerator as he put the groceries away. She didn’t want to go. She wanted to be here, with them, part of this.

  She searched Matt’s face. “Do you want me to get out of your way?”

  “No.” His slow, rare smile took her breath away. “I want you to stay for dinner. If you can stand to eat ham again.”

  She laughed. The donated ham had provided them with two meals and three packed lunches already. “Maybe we can heat up a casserole this time.”

  “Forget dinner. We need to get ready for check-in,” Meg said. “We have guests coming.”

  “We still have to eat,” Matt said calmly. “Eventually.”

  “I could put dinner together,” Allison offered. “While you do…whatever you have to do.”

  “Do you cook?” Meg asked.

  “No,” Allison admitted. “But I can warm a casserole and make a salad.”

  Taylor made gagging noises.

  Meg looked at her, alarmed. “What?”

  “She doesn’t like salad,” Allison explained. “You can have carrot sticks,” she said to Taylor.

  Meg nodded. “Fine. You can stay.”

  HE WAS GOING to strangle his sister, Matt decided over dinner.

  As long as Meg had guests to impress, she’d played the part of the perfect innkeeper, friendly, energetic, and efficient. She’d made beds and dinner reservations, answered questions and arranged for special meals. She’d provided videos, a crib, and a babysitter for the Kellers’ grandchildren.

  Eventually, though, the Kellers trooped off happily to the restaurant of their choice. Meg sat down to eat with Matt, Allison, and the kids.

  And promptly started the questioning.

  “So why Dare Island?” she asked Allison over hamburger casserole. “Did you come here on vacation?”

  “No, I just saw the job posting and liked the idea of an island school.”

  “Where did you teach before?”

  Allison set down her fork, responding pleasantly to his sister’s interrogation. “I didn’t start out as a teacher. I had to find my way into it. I did a lot of volunteer work, food pantry, Habitat for Humanity, that kind of thing. Then I got this summer internship with a women’s shelter in South Dakota, working with the childhood development program. That convinced me to try teaching. So after graduation, I spent two years in Mississippi with Teach for America.”

  “Not much in that, is there?”

  “Actually, it was very rewarding.”

  “I meant financially,” Meg said.

  Allison raised her eyebrows. “I don’t consider money as the only, or even the most important, factor in making career decisions.”

  Meg’s gaze flickered to the diamond-faced watch around Allison’s wrist. “Easy to say when you have it.”

  Allison gave a small, polite smile. “I’ve been very fortunate.”

  “Obviously,” Meg drawled.

  Matt glanced around the table, wondering when his sister had reverted to being a First Class Brat, wondering how much of the tension the kids were picking up. Josh shoveled in food, oblivious, but Taylor’s small face was pinched and watchful.

  “Allison’s a great teacher. Josh is lucky to be in her class,” he said.

  “Good for him. Good for her. No offense,” she said to Allison. “It’s just that I could never afford to flit around the country following my bliss. I had to work to pay the rent.”

  “Says Miss Central Park West,” Matt said.

  “Hey, it took me a long time to get there. Everything I have, I earned. Unlike some people.”

  Enough was enough.

  “What is your problem?” Matt asked. “Allison’s been busting her ass all day, first at school, then here. You should be grateful. You should thank her.”

  Meg’s face reddened. “I am. I do. Thank you.”

  All right, then. Matt dug into his dinner.

  But Meg, being Meg, couldn’t leave well enough alone. “I’m just saying that people who come from a certain kind of background don’t understand how things are for the rest of us.”

  “I understand more than you realize,” Allison said. The good manners Matt had noticed before, that made her so easy to talk to, kept her spine straight and her tone mild. “I didn’t go to Harvard, but one of the things I learned flitting around the country is that you might want to take some time, get to know a person or a situation, before you start making judgments.”

  Recognition sparked in Matt. Those were his words, almost the exact words he’d used to her over their first beer at the Fish House.

  She looked across the table at him and grinned.

  She had more than class, he thought. She had guts and heart.

  Most people buckled to Meg. But no matter what his sister threw at her, what life threw at her, Allison found a way to keep smiling.

  Matt smiled back, wishing he had more to offer her than warmed-up casserole with his sister and kids.

  “WHEN I’VE BEEN a bitch, I say I’ve been a bitch,” Meg announced the next morning.

  Allison straightened from cleaning the toilet and turned. Meg stood behind her in the door to the William Kidd room, wearing two-hundred-dollar jeans and an apron.

  Allison lowered the dripping toilet brush. “Dirty Dancing. Movie quote,” she explained. “So?”

  Meg scowled. “So, what?”

  “I’m waiting for you to say it.”

  Meg laughed, humor chasing the storm from her face. “I like you. Even if you are younger, prettier, and way nicer than me.”

  “And…?” Allison prompted.

  “I’m not getting away without a real apology, am I?” Meg asked wryly.

  Allison considered. “I can excuse your being rude to me. You had a long drive and a long day yesterday, and you’re under a lot of stress. But your attitude made things more difficult for Matt last night. So…No.”

  Meg nodded. “Fair enough. I was a bitch,” she said sincerely. “And I’m sorry. Can we be friends now?”

  Allison smiled, relaxing. “I’d like that.”

  “It’s okay if we don’t hug, though,” Meg said. “At least until you put down the toilet wand.”

  Allison laughed.

  Meg tilted her head. “The Kellers are all off fishing, bike riding, and touring the lighthouse. I have leftover coffee cake and a fresh pot of coffee in the kitchen. Feel like a break?”

  “I drink tea, and I’d love to take a break with you,” Allison said.

  THE KITCHEN GLEAMED. The dishwasher hummed. All traces of the breakfast Meg had prepared and served to the eleven adult Kellers and their seven children had been cleared, wrapped, washed, and organized away.

  “I’m impressed,” Allison said, sitting at the kitchen table. “Also intimidated.”

  Meg cradled
her mug and stretched out her legs. “Now you’re sucking up. I like it.”

  “I’m just being honest. Did you ever think about going into hotel management?”

  “Oh, God, no. I had enough of that growing up. Do you know what those entry-level jobs pay? There’s more money in insurance.”

  “And that’s important to you.”

  “Yes,” Meg said, one word, fast and definite, in a way that shut down further discussion.

  “This coffee cake is delicious,” Allison said.

  “Thanks.” Meg’s eyes suddenly, unexpectedly, filled with tears. She blotted them with the corner of her napkin. “Shit. It’s Mom’s recipe.”

  “How is she?” Allison asked sympathetically.

  Meg sniffed and crumpled the napkin. “I talked to Dad this morning. Mom finally convinced him to catch a few hours of sleep at the hotel last night. The orthopedic guy says she’s making a very fast recovery. They think they’ll be able to remove her chest tube and move her into a step-down unit in a couple of days.”

  “That’s wonderful.”

  “Yeah.” Meg rubbed the crease between her brows. “Of course, she’ll be in the hospital or rehab for weeks. Maybe months. And Derek is already putting pressure on me to come back to New York.”

  “Derek is your boss?”

  “That would be awkward. We live together,” Meg explained. “And we work together, but I don’t actually report to him.”

  “I’m sure he misses you,” Allison said politely.

  “Yeah. The company just acquired Parnassus Insurance—maybe you read about that? I write the press releases—and things are crazy at the office right now.”

  “I meant personally.”

  “Well, sure,” Meg said. “He actually talked about coming down with me, but he’s on the transition team. There’s no way we both could be gone. He really needs me in New York.”

  Allison nodded, not sure what to say. They needed Meg here, too.

  But Meg had a career, an apartment, a lover demanding her attention. Allison completely understood. She’d refused to let her own life be dictated by her parents. How could she suggest that Meg put everything on hold indefinitely?

  “Where’s Taylor this morning?” she asked.